Oak Park shooting puzzles neighbors

Scene of a shooting investigation in Oak Park. (Michelle Manchir / for the Tribune)

Michelle ManchirTribune reporter

Oak Park police are investigating a shooting in the near west suburb tonight, but releasing few details.

The shooting was reported on the 900 block of Taylor Avenue after 6 p.m. Thursday. Police would not offer details, but did confirm that someone was shot.

No condition was available for the victim, although a neighbor did see the victim taken away in an ambulance.

The incident puzzled neighbors, because shootings are nearly unheard of in the neighborhood, said Patti Wesley, who said she’s lived near Taylor Avenue for 13 years.

“If it was random it makes us all very scared,” Wesley said, describing the woman who owns the home where the shooting took place as a recently retired foster mother.

Wesley said she believes a man who rented out a portion of the house was the person who was shot, but police would not confirm the information.

Vince Baratta said he was grilling outside in his house next door and didn’t hear anything suspicious.

“A man was shot, taken away,” Baratta said.

The house where the shooting occurred was cordoned off by yellow police tape Thursday evening. A water gun and potted plant with a miniature American flag tucked in it were outside the home. Police brought search dogs to the yard, and a white car was towed away from the scene.

Sedrick McDonald, who said he lives down the street from the scene of the shooting, said extreme violence rarely takes place in Oak Park. “It’s normally not here.”